


phosphene

by milkdaze (flowerstems)



Series: seasons change & people hope [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-09
Updated: 2016-06-09
Packaged: 2018-07-14 00:21:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7144544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flowerstems/pseuds/milkdaze
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver stands beside an unsteady stack of crates, a feather could send them all crashing down, but Oliver gives the stack one hard stare before climbing it, crate by crate. Barry watches him, using all his effort in ignoring the urge to talk Oliver out of this. It’s hard to look away.</p>
            </blockquote>





	phosphene

Oliver is never in class. Barry knows this because Barry is always in class, and whenever he passes by Oliver’s classroom his seat is always empty. When the city is bland Tommy will be there to wring amusement out of giving Barry vague hints regarding where Oliver may or may not be. On days Laurel remains after classes to tutor other students, she kindly tells Barry what she knows. Usually, Oliver is neither here nor there, he’s somewhere in between, which makes it difficult for Barry to find him. Difficult doesn't mean impossible; Barry always finds Oliver.

 

On hot days he finds a half-asleep Oliver lounging under a tree near the field behind the school’s property. On cool days Oliver follows a path only he can see then doubles back to walk home with Thea; Barry meets him halfway. On rainy days Oliver stays in school, but he still skips his classes. Barry figures they’re out of sync, why else would they constantly miss each other in the same place? It's a big place, but still.

 

Today, Barry can’t find Oliver. It’s discomfiting to realise he doesn't have the slightest idea of where Oliver may be. Barry stands at the school gate, trying to explain a lesson to Iris because she wants an explanation she can 'actually understand’, and Barry is inclined to help her. It’s not a lost cause but Iris is out of it, preoccupied with projects and a date, so Barry suggests she gets some rest instead.

 

“What about you?” Her tired eyes glint with mischief and she smiles with an energy Barry didn't expect her to have. “Are you planning to stand there all evening?”

 

“I’ve got my own date,” and like clockwork his phone goes off. 4:00PM on the dot; who said Oliver doesn’t know about punctuality?

 

“You couldn’t find him today,” Iris laughs, patting Barry's shoulder as though he needs the comfort.

 

Barry shrugs off his defeat with a grin. “But I’m about to,” he chimes as he checks the address—it’s unfamiliar and when he shows Iris she gasps, stage-whispering grand conspiracies about murder and elopement. It's fun to listen to Iris expose herself as a conspiracy theorist, but Barry has to say, “I’m starting to think you can focus on my summary.” Iris hugs him and runs off so quickly Barry barely gets to wave goodbye. Barry checks the address again, taking the train to the closest stop before walking the rest of the way.

 

It’s far from the school. It’s far from just about everything, near the edge of the city, and the entire area looks both dead and alive in the evening light. Broken signs and derelict buildings dirty the landscape, overrun with greenery and vines, but empty all the same. Everything is grey or green, only the bright orange sky is out of place. It may have been a small town of its own bustling with life once upon a time. Either way, it’s abandoned now. Barry takes a pictures of it all, deleting almost all of them by the time they pass through his quality check.

 

At the junction Barry goes right, pulling vines off street signs and following broken roads until he finds a warehouse. A large, metal thing abandoned mid-construction, crane and all. It sits alone and the way it catches the light makes it look upset. Barry wanders in and gazes every which way. It’s oddly pretty despite being wood and metal left to waste away. Oliver’s walking along a metal beam on the far side of the warehouse and when Barry calls out to him he jumps down and greets Barry with a happy smile, one that says he knows what’s coming next.

 

“You cheated today,” Barry comments, hand holding his phone at his side loosely; he’s not sure if he wants to put it away, he might get a chance to take a picture.

 

“I know,” Oliver steps over broken pieces of wood and twisted metal, easily making his way over to Barry—he must have been here for a while, “I’m sorry. Today won’t count.”

 

“Too late, Iris is already counting it,” Barry tucks his chin, pretending to frown, and Oliver stoops down to flash a toothy smile at him so Barry can’t even pretend anymore.

 

“I’ll make it up to you,” he says, standing up when Barry grins at him. Oliver takes Barry’s free hand and tugs him farther into the warehouse, swinging his arm in gestures that do nothing to conceal his excitement. Oliver always gets so excited about these things. “But I wanted to show you this place. Wasn’t the walk here great?”

 

“It was,” Barry says, shaking Oliver’s hand in his to get him to lean in close so he can share the pictures he kept on his phone—only the best ones.

 

“How do you always get such great shots?”

 

“My muse is always on my mind,” Barry smiles, mischief underlining everything he says and Oliver laughs, hand tightening around Barry’s as he guides him through the debris. It’s bright inside the warehouse and Barry looks up, finally realising there’s no roof. Places that look lonely, pathetic, and beautiful from the inside; those are the places Oliver goes when he’s not where he’s expected to be. “How do you find these places?”

 

“I go looking,” is the response and Oliver seems so pleased with himself Barry doesn’t want to leave it alone, “mostly so I can avoid my responsibilities.” Escapism. It's obvious now that Oliver's said it.

 

They come to a stop in the corner of the warehouse that smells of rust sprawling over the crane that Barry still can't believe was just abandoned. It could be doing so much more than rusting away. Barry stands beside Oliver, and Oliver stands beside an unsteady stack of crates a ways off from the crane. A feather could send them all crashing down, but Oliver gives the stack one hard stare before climbing it, crate by crate. Barry watches him, using all his effort in ignoring the urge to talk Oliver out of this. It’s hard to look away.

 

“Why run?” It’s funny that Barry of all people would ask that. He runs like he breathes, usually with ease. Unless he's with Oliver, who tears his rhythm asunder. Oliver must agree that it's funny because he snickers loud enough for the sound of it to echo up and out of the warehouse. Barry's eyes roll before he can think better of it, but Oliver can't see him so he rolls his eyes again, this time with purpose. “You’ll have to face them eventually.”

 

“Sounds like your problem,” Oliver says as he stands, triumphantly, atop the stack of crates. It shivers under his weight and Barry's heart skips up into his throat. Oliver toes around the crate and gets comfortable. There’s rubble on one side of the stack that Barry doesn’t want Oliver falling into and the chain of the abandoned crane hanging idly on the other. “You think way too much about every little thing.”

 

That statement had impeccable timing and Barry isn't about to let Oliver know that. Barry snorts. “And you don’t?”

 

“Everyone does,” Oliver says earnestly, looking around as though he’ll find something to do quicker if he’s closer to danger, “but I ignore it and do what I want anyway.”

 

“How do you feel about that?” Barry is genuinely curious, both about what Oliver feels and what he’s about to do. He walks a little closer to the crates, arms stretching out as though they could catch Oliver if he were to fall.

 

Oliver jumps off the crates and grabs at the crane’s chain, swinging from it and laughing triumphantly when he doesn’t fall. Barry realises then he shrieked the moment Oliver jumped because of the rawness in his throat and Oliver's stupid smile. “You scared for me?”

 

Barry lets go of his head and lets his shoulders relax. He opens the camera of his phone and takes a picture of Oliver swinging from the chain. The image keeps blurring; Barry twists his mouth until his cheeks hurt and records a video instead. “Scared you’d crush me to death.”

 

There’s a laugh, maybe from both of them, and Oliver goes back to being blissfully reckless. He slides halfway down the chain, Barry takes a step back, then suddenly Oliver’s swinging himself upside down, legs wrapping around the chain, and he lets himself slide down until he’s face to face with Barry.

 

It’s not the right thing to say, but Barry thinks Oliver has completely lost it. Is he the only one who has any sense of danger?

 

“Good.”

 

“What?”

 

“You being scared for me,” Oliver says, obviously more focused on not falling than talking, “and me doing whatever I want makes me feel good.”

 

“This isn’t a movie,” Barry snaps, walking closer and making sure to get Oliver’s expression before anything else, “if you fall it’s going to hurt.”

 

“First let’s do that thing in the movies.”

 

“What thing?”

 

“The kiss,” Oliver slides a little lower so it’s easier and Barry bites back a laugh. If they take too long Oliver really will fall. He lowers his phone and leans in to kiss Oliver carefully, the swaying causing him to miss his mark and bump his nose into Oliver's chin five times too many. “No, wait,” Oliver leans away and the chain swings him too much for Barry’s comfort. How is he still holding on? “Record our superhero moment.”

 

Barry can’t hold back the laugh this time but he bravely talks through it, “Are you serious?”

 

“Quickly, before my beautiful life is cut short.”

 

Barry sighs his agreement as he holds up his phone and angles it towards them, trying to hold it steady while kissing his stupid, upside-down boyfriend who won’t stop swaying. They keep bumping each other’s chins and noses, they laugh too much to properly kiss, and it’s carelessly dangerous even for Oliver. It's as close to a movie as they can get, just the two of them wasting time in a warehouse in a forgotten town where no one cares and no one is looking.

 

Somehow Oliver manages to pull himself upright after they kiss and jump down, though he falls over right after, dizzy from the flipping and swaying. Barry laughs at him and sits beside him, stopping the recording then lying down.

 

“You’re un-fucking-real,” Barry sighs, awed, when the reality of what just happened sinks in. That was so incredibly... stupid, and he let it happen. The sky is a careless spray of purple and blue now, orange lining a few clouds and slipping into the night. “There are so many different ways that could have gone wrong.”

 

“But they didn’t. And aren't you always the one taking chances?” Oliver rolls onto his side and Barry stares back with a grin on his face. “So inspiring.”

 

“I don’t swing from chains upside-down to re-enact a kiss scene.” Barry hits the arm Oliver’s propped up on from under him and Oliver lets himself splay halfway over Barry. “If only your family knew what you do with your skills.”

 

“Then why don’t you show them that video?”

 

It’s muffled in Barry’s shoulder and Barry can't disregard the suggestion quick enough. “No way in hell.”

 

Oliver laughs and Barry thinks he’ll look at the video later when Oliver can’t get a kick out of it. Just thinking about it gets Barry’s heart pounding again and he has to take deep breaths to calm down. Oliver notices, naturally. He usually does but having his head on Barry’s chest might have helped.

 

“Relax. It’s fine,” he coos, leaning up to kiss Barry’s cheek, propping up on his arm again to kiss Barry’s forehead. After a while he says, “I won’t do it again.”

 

“You’d better not.” Barry’s all about trying new things, within reason. Oliver pinches his nose and shakes it a little until Barry ends up laughing, “Ow, ow, stop—”

 

After a few more twists to Barry’s nose, Oliver kisses the tip of it then sits up properly, stretching his arms then getting to his feet and stretching his legs. “If we want to get back without getting lost then we should get going.” He holds out a hand and when Barry takes it he pulls him to his feet.

 

“You remember the way back?”

 

“I was hoping you would.”

 

Barry eyes Oliver, incredulous, but when all he does is smile Barry lets every bitter, stressed feeling that floods his body pull his face down into a glower. “How did you even send the directions?”

 

“I typed them as I walked and sent them when I was sure I liked the place.”

 

Amazing. Absolutely, and aggravatingly amazing.

 

Barry forces his disbelief into a laugh, gets it out of his body before it tries to get Oliver in a chokehold, and checks the directions on his phone. It will take a while but he bets he can flip them, map out the way back. He types them out just to be safe then takes Oliver’s hand, lacing their fingers together and squeezing harder than necessary as he leads the way. “What would you do without me?”

 

“Get lost.” Oliver doesn't sound at all bothered and, honestly, Barry just accepts it for what it is: just Oliver being Oliver. “Really, really lost.”

  
This is why Barry always goes looking for Oliver: there is a strong possibility, and Barry's talking really strong, that he’s the only one who will be able to find him and bring him back home.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this so because as long as i have a warehouse scene where oliver hangs upside down from a crane’s chain and gives barry a spiderman kiss i will know i have lived.


End file.
